The invention relates to a sanitary functional unit which has a housing which can be releasably fastened to the water outlet of a sanitary outlet fitting, the housing having an outflow-side housing end face with outflow openings.
There are already various known sanitary functional units which can be releasably fastened to the outlet end of a sanitary outlet fitting in order to form and/or regulate the water jet emerging there. For example, jet regulators intended to form the outflowing water into a homogeneous, non-splashing and possibly also effervescent-soft water jet have been created. These functional units, formed for example as jet regulators, have a housing which has a housing end face that is on the outflow side, is designed for example as a flow straightener and has a large number of outflow openings. To be able to fit such previously known functional units on the outlet end of the outlet fitting, functional units which bear on the outer housing periphery of their housing an external thread with which the housing can be screwed in by an internal thread provided on the inner periphery of the outlet fitting have already been created. To be able to apply to the housing the turning force required for screwing the corresponding threads, profilings which serve as turning engagement surfaces or tool engagement surfaces for a turning tool are provided at the peripheral edge on the outflow-side end or in the region of the peripheral edge of the housing. Since the previously known functional units often do not require maintenance over many months, the required turning tool is frequently mislaid over the months, with the result that it is not readily available when required.
The applicant's German utility model 93 14 990 discloses a jet aerator which has in its fitting housing a perforated plate serving as a jet splitter, which has a number of throughflow holes for producing a large number of individual jets. Provided in the outflow region of the throughflow holes are pins, the end of which that is free, narrows conically to a point and points towards the perforated plate being formed as a deflection slope which respectively deflects at an angle to the direction of flow one of the individual jets coming from the throughflow holes. To be able to fit the fitting housing of this previously known jet aerator on the water outlet of a sanitary outlet fitting, a sleeve-like outlet mouthpiece into which the fitting housing can be inserted up to an insertion stop is provided. Provided on the outlet mouthpiece is a thread, which can be screwed with a corresponding mating thread on the water outlet.
The outer appearance of the outlet fitting is determined by the water outlet and the adjacent outlet mouthpiece and the screw connection thereof to the water outlet. To create an aesthetically pleasing appearance, it is required to make the visible surfaces of the outlet mouthpiece on the one hand and of the outlet fitting in the region of its water outlet on the other hand as uniform as possible. Nevertheless, a narrow gap remains between the outlet mouthpiece and the jet regulator insert, tends to become soiled and may have a detrimental effect.
Therefore, likewise serving as a jet aerator, a sanitary fitting with a multipart fitting housing, which has on its outer housing periphery an external thread for screwing into an internal thread provided on the inner periphery of the water outlet of a sanitary outlet fitting, has also been created (cf. DE 10 2005 010 551 A1). Formed onto the fitting housing on the outflow side is a flow straightener, which is formed as a perforated plate which has throughflow holes and forms the outflow-side housing end face. A number of grid-like insert parts, which serve as a jet regulating device designed to re-form the individual jets aerated in the housing interior into a homogeneous, non-splashing combined jet can be inserted into the housing interior of the fitting housing. The edge on the outflow-side end of the housing has a profiling which may serve as a tool engagement surface for the corresponding profiling of a further fitting housing used as a turning tool. Since the jet aerator previously known from DE 10 2005 010 551 A1 can be screwed so far into the water outlet of a sanitary outlet fitting that the outflow-side housing end face of the fitting housing does not protrude beyond the water outlet of the outlet fitting, the aesthetic impression is determined by the outlet fitting alone. To be able to fit or remove the fitting housing onto or from the water outlet of the outlet fitting, however, a further fitting housing or another special turning tool is always required and may not always be available, especially in a household.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,513 also discloses a jet regulator with a sleeve-like fitting housing which bears on its outflow-side housing periphery an external thread with which the fitting housing can be screwed onto an internal thread provided on the inner periphery of the water outlet of the outlet fitting. The fitting housing has an outflow-side housing end face which is formed by superposed layers of metal screens and is displaceably guided in the housing interior of the fitting housing. By applying a coin to this outflow-side housing end face, the housing end face is pushed forward into the housing interior in such a way as to expose a slot accepting the narrow side of the coin and serving as a tool engagement surface for the coin used as a turning tool. However, the displaceability of the housing end face has the consequence that the flow conditions in the housing interior of the previously known jet regulator can change, so that the previously known jet regulator possibly does not have a jet of consistent quality, particularly does not have a jet of a consistently good quality, and requires considerable installation space.
Comparable jet regulators which have tool engagement surfaces for a simple turning tool on their outflow-side housing end face are also disclosed by WO 2006/094680 A1, CH-A 380 042, US 2002/0084353A1, U.S. Pat. No. 3,014,667 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,534,514.
Jet regulators have also already been created with a jet regulator housing of which the outflow-side housing end face has a hemispherical peripheral edge region, which is pivotably mounted in a partial region of the jet regulator housing that is designed as a joint socket in such a way that the emerging water jet can be aligned with respect to the point of impingement in the downstream washbasin. In this case, a stick-like manual adjusting element is provided on the outflow side of the housing end face, protruding outwards in a detrimental manner and possibly also causing undesired manipulations to occur on the housing end face. If there is no visually discernible feature on the outlet end face, it is not clear to an unpractised or uncertain user that the water jet can be set in its direction by actuating the outlet end face.